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January 31st
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Pet Shops
As we know Square always surprises us with something very genius. This time they name a regular
item store in the game as a pet shop!!
In the pet shop, you don't buy pets, but recovery potions for the Guardian Forces under your command. Other items on the pet shop list are: "Pet name-card", "Guardian Force handwriting", "Pet House", "G Potion", and "G Returner". January 27th - Pre-Order Sales Rocket In the period between December 22nd 1998 and January 22nd 1999, exactly a month, Square of Japan have recorded 1,078,017 reservations of Final Fantasy 8 in the build up to when it is released on February 11th. With over 1 million pre-orders, and with 2 weeks still left, Final Fantasy 8 is well on the way to outselling Final Fantasy 7, which took 6 weeks to reach 1 million pre-orders way back in 1996. It'll be a safe bet it's going to be right little earner for Square... again. January 24th - Final Fantasy 8 Screenshots Here's loads of new Final Fantasy 8 screenshots, take a look here. Also, I updated the Final Fantasy 8 World Map. January 23rd - Importing Final Fantasy 8? Not if Sony can help it. Sony of Japan recently announced that Final Fantasy 8 will feature some special program on its disc to prevent the usage of current 'mod-chips' for playing the japanese import. The system isn't entirley new, it was used in a game called Poporogue, but mod-chip companies made a new chip to counter this. Not surprisingly, both Square and Sony are concerned at the possible loss of money to piracy of this huge title, especially when you look at how much money Sony lost to pirates with regards to Metal Gear Solid. January 17th - Card Battle! 
Final Fantasy 7 included many 'mini-games', some of them could be said to be fairly tedious. It comes as no surprise that Final Fantasy 8 will inlcude alot more. This 'Card Battle' game is the first to be revealed. This option becomes available only in city and garden areas of the game where you talk with townspeople. Instead of pressing the circle button to talk with them, you press the square to play card battle. This will only work if they have cards to battle with. The format is a cross between Othello and I Declare War where the person with the higher face value card will win. You can obtain new cards through Card Battles as well as pick them up after regular monster encounters or use the card ability from the battle menu screen. There will be many cards that are difficult to obtain, but those determined few who collect them all will be rewarded in some way.
Screenshots: 
Final Fantasy 8 isn't to include treasure boxes, according to a Japanese news site. Instead of the traditional 'goodie boxes', there will be 'draw points'. This works much in the same way as you draw magic from an enemy in a battle, but instead you draw a random magic from a violet sphere.
What do you think of this innovation? Voice your opinions on the Final Fantasy Message Board.
A fairly big name in the PC magazine industry, Ultimate PC, reported in its latest issue that Final Fantasy 8 will indeed make it to the PC:
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